DEFECTION: Buhari meets aggrieved senators, promises nothing about lost return tickets

Before their planned defection, aggrieved APC senators frustrated by their state governors had a top-down conversation with President Muhammad Buhari Tuesday.

But there was nothing Buhari promised as solution to their grievance—their loss of return tickets to the upper chamber in 2023.

The lawmakers, numbering about 22, had vowed to defect from the party to the PDP and the NNPP because of the way they got short-changed during the party primaries.

Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who led he senators to Buhari said the lawmakers felt disenfranchised by the process and conduct of the primaries.

But Buhari urged the senators to exercise restraint in their decision to defect from the APC

According to the president, the defections were a threat to the APC’s majority in the National Assembly.

Although Kalu, after the meeting, said the losers were no longer planning to defect, the loss of their return tickets was a forgone conclusion.

Already, seven APC senators, including the immediate past Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, representing Kebbi North, former governor of Kebbi State, Adamu Aliero, senator representing President Buhari in Katsina North, Ahmad Babba-Kaita; former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, among others, have since jumped ships to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP.